


Burning

by fieryanmitsu



Series: A3! Week 2020 [2]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22371979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fieryanmitsu/pseuds/fieryanmitsu
Summary: Written for Day 2 of A3! Week 2020.Prompts: Spring | Outside Work | Hurt/ComfortItaru hated this feeling. This mix of frustration, anger, disappointment, loathing – all directed at himself. He felt like his body was burning up with all of these emotions.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Tachibana Izumi
Series: A3! Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608520
Comments: 27
Kudos: 206





	Burning

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a couple days late (as I anticipated would happen), but here’s my entry for Day 2 of A3! Week 2020! 
> 
> Since one of the themes for Day 2 was Spring, I decided to go with my favourite Spring Troupe boy – Itaru! 
> 
> Please enjoy~
> 
> DAY 2 PROMPTS: Spring | Outside Work | Hurt/Comfort

“My most sincere apologies, sir!” Itaru declared, bending his body into a ninety-degree bow before his supervisor.

“Chigasaki. I hope you understand that luck was on our side this time. We were fortunate that someone happened to catch the package before it got out of the mail room, but if they hadn’t…”

“I understand, sir. I’m fully aware of the ramifications that it would have had on the timelines. There was no excuse for my carelessness. It won’t happen again,” Itaru responded, gritting his teeth in frustration, refusing to straighten from his bow.

“Raise your head, Chigasaki,” his supervisor replied with a sigh. “Everyone makes mistakes. We can’t always be perfect. I don’t expect my employees to make _no_ mistakes. But what I do expect is that you do your best to _avoid_ making them. This was a big project with several moving parts. I did not expect you to do everything yourself – that’s why you were assigned a team to work with. Despite your experience level, I gave you the role of leading the project team because of how competent you are, and I wanted to give you an opportunity to grow.”

“I’m thankful for that opportunity, sir. I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your expectations.”

“You have every chance to make them up. Learn from this mistake and don’t repeat it. Remember, a leader doesn’t do everything himself – you can delegate and rely on your team members. Knowing how to utilize each person’s experience and skillset is key.”

“I understand, sir. I’ll take your words to heart and improve myself.”

“Good. Don’t brush this off, but don’t dwell on it too long either,” his boss stated and clapped him on the shoulder before returning to his desk. “You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Itaru turned around and exited his supervisor’s office, shutting the door quietly behind him and ignoring the secretary’s pitying gaze as he walked past her desk. However, instead of returning to his workspace, his feet turned towards the stairwell, leading him up to the rooftop greenspace. He needed a moment to recover himself before he was bombarded by his coworkers. He could feel a telltale lump in his throat, could feel the burning sensation itching behind his eyes. His stomach was roiling – like the acid was trying to eat away at the lining. It was as if his body was on fire.

His mask was cracking.

He clenched his jaw tighter, until his teeth ground together painfully, and forcibly shoved his emotions back into his traitorous body. This mix of frustration, anger, disappointment, loathing – all directed at himself. He hated this feeling. Hated how his supervisor had hit the nail on the head. Hated that he had knowingly set himself up to fail.

Itaru had known from the beginning how large-scale this project was and that they were working on a tight timeline – that one misstep would set off a domino effect that could end in failure. Despite knowing this, he had been unable to let go of his bad habit: relying only on himself.

Ever since his high school years, he had had issues placing his faith in others. Whether in real life or in games, he preferred to do things alone. He had always managed to compensate for the lack of numbers. Study harder. Grind more. Work longer. Sleep less. He had always executed every step of his life perfectly by doing so.

This time, he had foolishly invested himself too much into wanting the project to succeed. He had told himself that he just wanted to do well because of the inevitable cash bonus each team member would receive if the project went without a hitch. However, deep down, he knew that he also _wanted_ to do well. Wanted to feel that satisfaction of seeing every piece click into place by his own hands. It was the same feeling he got when he completed a game where he had set restrictions on – that feeling of being challenged and overcoming it. He wanted it so badly that he had tried to do as much as he could himself. He couldn’t trust anyone else to do things – not when the first project he was leading was at stake.

Of course, that had completely backfired. He had dipped his fingers into too many pies at once, tried to pull too many strings with just his two hands that he had dropped one. The important design materials for the new product that his company intended to invest in had almost gone to the wrong address. A wrong address that was on the opposite end of the country. A mistake that would have caused a missed deadline, that would have set back the production timelines, that would have led to disaster. A pathetic, noob mistake that could have been easily avoided if he had just trusted that someone other than himself could have done such a simple task.

He thought that his time at the Mankai Company would have beaten that habit out by now – hadn’t he already learned that team mates could be relied on? Hadn’t he learned that not everyone was out to get him? That there were genuine people out there? That maybe he should learn to give them a chance…?

Itaru pushed open the door to the roof and stepped out into the crisp spring air. His suit wasn’t enough to keep out the chill, but he hoped that the wind would cool off the hot emotions still wracking his body.

He supposed he still had a lot of growing up to do.

* * *

The rest of the work day had crawled by. When he had returned to his office, his perfect working face was back in place. He had placated his worried team members with a soft smile and encouraging words – he was supposed to be their project leader, after all. By the time everyone else had left the office, he thought his face might be frozen into a permanent smile.

Itaru was exhausted – he hadn’t even had lunch, just coffee. It hadn’t helped that he had purposely put in extra overtime to make up for his incompetence. He needed to just feel like he had accomplished something so that he could leave work not feeling like complete shit. Of course, that didn’t go according to plan. Somehow, he couldn’t seem to get back into the groove and he left his office building feeling even more frustrated.

But, it was fine. Spring Troupe wasn’t back on their rehearsing schedule until next week, so the rest of his evening was free. He was on his way home now. He could hole up in his castle and play games for the rest of the night. His games would help him take his mind off things, then he would sleep this feeling away and everything would be back to normal tomorrow.

Having thoroughly convinced himself of his game plan, Itaru let his usual easy smirk grace his face as he walked through the doors of the Mankai Company.

“I’m home!”

“Yoooo~” Banri drawled from his spot sprawled on the couch, raising one hand lazily in greeting.

“Welcome home, Itaru!” Muku chirped from beside him. It looked like they were watching some comedy program on the television.

“Welcome back, I guess,” Yuki added, his eyes not even bothering to leave the screen.

 _Brat_ , Itaru scoffed internally.

“Welcome home, Itaru! There’s still some dinner in the fridge – do you want me to warm some up for you?” Izumi greeted, looking up from the dishes she was washing.

“Mmm, sorry, I’m not hungry. I’m a bit tired from work so I’m just going to rest in my room.”

“Eh…? Ah, sure. Sounds good. Have a good rest.”

He swiftly walked through the lounge and made a beeline for his room, missing the look of concern on Izumi’s face as he passed her by.

Once he was in his room, he let out a long sigh. Without even bothering to turn on the lights, he dropped his suitcase against the wall and tossed his suit jacket over his computer chair. He couldn’t even bring himself to change before he collapsed onto his couch.

Out of habit, he took his phone out and opened up one of his mobile games. However, after staring at the screen for a moment, he closed it, not even bothering to collect his dailies. Even though he had been super into that game recently, for some reason, he just didn’t feel like playing it right now. He opened up the next game… But closed it just as quickly. And the next. And the next. And then he finally tossed his phone on the coffee table and stared vacantly at the ceiling.

He didn’t know how long he had been laying in the dark when he heard a light knocking on the door, followed by Izumi’s voice.

“Itaru? Can I come in?”

For a second, he contemplated saying no, but the word got stuck in his throat and somehow wouldn’t come out.

“Come in,” he said instead.

The door to his room creaked open and he heard Izumi step inside before shutting the door behind her. He didn’t bother to sit up – he just didn’t feel like it.

Then, suddenly, the smell of curry drifted to his nose and his stomach grumbled.

“Well, that’s embarrassing,” he muttered with a groan. So much for his earlier bravado of not being hungry.

“I had a feeling you hadn’t eaten yet,” Izumi said with a light chuckle. “Can I turn on the lights?”

“No…. I’d rather you not.”

“Okay.”

He felt, rather than saw, Izumi shuffle herself over to him – he was impressed she hadn’t tripped over anything – and sit down on the floor beside the couch. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her clear some space on his coffee table. He saw her pick up his phone and stare at it for a few long seconds before she placed it to the side carefully. Then, she placed the tray of food on the clean space. There was a heaping plate of curry rice, a side of pickles and a glass of his favourite – cola. Izumi never willingly gave him cola.

Itaru wanted to punch himself. Why were tears suddenly prickling at his eyes? What the hell was he crying over?! A carbonated drink?! He quickly scrubbed away the threatening tears with his sleeve and swung himself upright, pulling the tray of food towards him. If Izumi saw him, she didn’t say anything.

“… Thanks for the food,” he mumbled before shovelling the curry into his mouth. He swore it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.

As he ate, he thought Izumi would start talking, asking him what was wrong – since it was obvious that he wasn’t himself, as much as he wanted to deny it.

Instead, to his surprise, she leaned back against the couch, took out her phone and… opened up a phone game. Like a moth to a flame, his eyes automatically moved to look at her screen. With one glance, Itaru could tell that it was some kind of cooking simulation game. There were sprites moving around on the screen in a virtual kitchen and he briefly caught the words ‘Recipes’ and ‘Ingredients’ on the game menu.

A moment later, he saw the screen change to a close up of the food preparation counter and stove top. It looked like a cooking mini game was about to begin. On the game screen were onions, potatoes, carrots… and a brick of brown cubes… Curry roux. Izumi began tapping away furiously at the screen, and he could see the vegetables being chopped before her fingers started dragging the ingredients into the virtual pot.

“Heh… Heheheh… Of course,” Itaru couldn’t help chuckling as he realized that, even in a game, she was cooking curry.

“Ahhh, you distracted me, Itaru!! I just messed up… Look, my curry’s all burnt now,” she pouted, shoving the phone screen into his face.

“Hmmm, maybe it’s just ‘cause you’re a noob?” Itaru teased, poking her puffed out cheek.

 _Cute_ , he thought.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounded like. Here, let the master show you how it’s done,” Itaru smirked, putting down his spoon and patting the spot beside him on the couch.

With a huff, Izumi pushed herself off the floor and plopped herself down onto the couch. The cushion was soft and she sank down, gravity automatically caused her to slide into his body. With another smirk, Itaru circled his arms around her shoulders, grabbed her phone so that it was still held in front of her face, and dropped his chin to rest on the top of her head. He felt Izumi jump at the sudden physical contact, but that just made him snuggle up closer to her back. Before she could make an excuse to move away – he was quite content with this position, after all – he drew her attention to the phone screen.

“Look, you should be picking better tools if you want a higher score. It looks like you have tons of the free currency already, so that means that you should be able to buy something in the store. Ah. Here we go. This is just a free-to-play upgraded knife, but it should still improve your score. And… hmmm, you could buy an apron to upgrade your outfit too – it boosts your stats. Ah, I like this frilly pink one. It would look cute on you IRL. And look you have better ingredients to choose from. These are golden potatoes, that should be better quality than the normal ones you were using.”

“How did you know all of that?! Have you played this game before?” Izumi asked, surprised.

“Nah, just instincts. These kinda games all use the same mechanism – once you’ve played enough, you just know. So, here, let’s try and make that curry again… And… game start!”

Itaru tapped on the screen with practiced fingers, and soon the mini-game ended and the score popped up on the screen.

“What?! You got an SS score?! I’ve only ever gotten a B!! Have you even cooked curry before in real life?! I can’t believe curry betrayed me! It must be because this game just uses boxed roux!” Izumi exclaimed heatedly, turning around in his arms to shoot him a glare. She looked so genuinely offended that Itaru couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“You’re really something else, Izumi… Boxed roux… Pfft!!” Itaru managed to get out between his chuckles.

“Ugh… Rude… That’s the last time I make you curry then, you ingrate.”

As his laughter died down, he realized that Izumi had stopped talking and was now staring at him intently. The look on her face was softer than he expected, lit up with only the backlight of her phone screen, and his breath caught in his throat. He could feel his heart beat faster – he always knew he had it bad for her.

“You’ve got a smile on your face again, Itaru. I’m glad!” she said suddenly, smiling gently at him.

“Eh? Wasn’t I smiling when I came home? I always greet you with a smile.”

“Nope! It wasn’t the right smile. This is the one I like most,” she responded.

Itaru’s eyes widened and he felt like his heart had stopped. He was glad that the room was dark, because he felt like his face was on fire.

“It seems like you had a rough day at work. I know there’s nothing I can do to help you with that, but I figured some food, fun and rest would help,” Izumi continued.

 _Ah._ It made sense now. And for the first time all day, he felt relaxed. Like his body had been gently submerged into cool water.

“In that case… Could I just… close my eyes for a minute?”

“Of course! I’ll take the dishes away and get out so you can rest,” Izumi responded with a smile, moving to extract herself from his arms.

“No. Stay here,” Itaru protested, tightening his arms around the surprised director and burying his face into the crook of her neck.

“Itaru…”

“Just for a bit. I feel better this way. Please.”

Instead of answering, Izumi reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, and he sighed contently.

He still kind of felt like shit – he was sure he wouldn’t be over it until he finally did something right again at work – but, for now, that burning feeling had subsided, and that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings about Itaru for various reasons. Though it may not always look like it, I find him to be a very complex character (which I think will be more evident to those who are caught up with the Japanese app or who have spoiled his storyline, as I have, haha) and a very fascinating character to write. This was my first attempt at writing something Itaru-centric, and I feel like I wasn’t quite able to do him justice. But, hopefully I’ve at least captured his essence by even a little bit! 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and comments are appreciated!


End file.
